Five bombshells that could blow away Crown’s Melbourne casino
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The future of Crown's Southbank casino in Melbourne hangs in the balance.
Crown Melbourne made $1.2 billion from its poker machines and table games every year. Responsible gambling is a key requirement of its casino licence. Finkelstein wants to make it one of his key tests of Crown's suitability to hold a licence, because it has a 34-hour gambling binges, a responsible gambling team with an annual budget of just $ 1.9 million and a pokies spin limit of $10. Crown has rorted the government by making illegal deductions to its tax bill since 2012. It short-changed Victoria anywhere between $8 million to $272 million.
Crown sold $160 million of casino chips through its hotel desk and charged them to customers’ credit cards between 2012 and 2016. Crown knew it was probably breaking the law in 2012. Finkelstein said Crown didn't care about breaking law as long as money was coming through the door. The practice only came to light because a junior gaming staff member raised it at a training session in March this year.
The Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) was not included in Finkelstein's inquiry. The commission has been criticised for its failure to hold Crown to account. Crown tried to intimidate the VCGLr into dropping its push for strengthened anti-money-laundering controls in 2019. 19 Crown staff were arrested in China in 2016. VC GLR's report into the incident blasted Crown for being belligerent. Crown wrote to the gaming minister a week earlier warning that adverse findings against it would be a problem for the government.
Crown's Melbourne casino should be run by Victorians for Victoria, according to Finkelstein. Some of the people running Crown Melbourne have been executives or directors in the national group based in Perth or Sydney. Crown could be breaching its agreements with Victoria if its new casino in Sydney or its existing one in WA took business away from Melbourne.
